No-heat clothes dryer

ABSTRACT

A &#34;no-heat&#34; clothes dryer is provided herein. It includes a drying chamber having an access opening. An access door is hinged to the access opening, the door being adapted to close the access opening in an hermetically sealed manner. Means, which are conventional but which are adapted to be actuated only when the door is closed, are provided to subject the interior of the drying chamber to a vacuum. Means are provided which positively interrelate the breaking of the vacuum with the opening of the access door. Such means include a door handle having a lever which is pivotally mounted to move between a closed position, where it locks the door in a closed position, and an open position, where it simultaneously opens vents to the interior of the drying chamber and unlocks the door to enable opening thereof. The particular structure of the door handle is as follows: (i) a main framework; (ii) an anchor plate at one corner thereof; (iii) a release lever pivotally secured to the anchor plate; (iv) a plunger extending through the door, and connected to the free end of the release lever normally resiliently urged to come into locking engagement with a lock on the door frame; and (v) means associated with the movement of the plunger out of locking engagement with the lock to open vent means in the door. In this way, clothes are dried without the expenditure of wasteful heat energy in a home dryer which includes a fail-safe safety feature for the door opening.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

This invention relates to a clothes dryer which is adapted to dryclothes without the addition of heat.

2. Description of the Prior Art

It is well known that clothes may be dried by the application of heatthereto in electrically-heated or gas-heated clothes dryers. Not only isthere a considerable expenditure of energy required to heat the clothesto a sufficiently high temperature that the clothes will dry, but theheat in the exhaust from such dryers is lost. Moreover, since thesedryers tumble the clothes, the clothes, when they are removed, arewrinkled and generally must be ironed.

It is well known that the boiling point of a liquid is decreased with adecrease in ambient pressure. This well-known thermodynamic fact hasbeen applied in many patents. For example, in Canadian Pat. No 322,144issued May 3, 1932 to W. Muller et al, an apparatus is provided toassist in the preparation of bread. The apparatus includes a vacuumchamber having one or more air-tight and lockable access doors thereinwith means for supporting freshly baked bread within the chamber. Acondenser is connected to the chamber and a vacuum pump is coupled tothe condenser. Drainage and control means are connected to the chamberand to the condenser. A pressure release valve and a vacuum indicatinggauge are also connected to the chamber.

In another patent, Canadian Pat. No. 372,845 issued Mar. 30, 1938 to W.L. Fleisher, an apparatus is provided for cooling bread. The apparatusincludes a plurality of chambers, each having closure means and meansfor the automatic locking thereof. A vacuum pump is provided, along withdistributor means for automatically connecting and disconnecting thepump with the chambers in timed relation and for breaking the vacuum inthe chambers without affecting the operation of the pump.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Aims of the Invention

Thus, while these patents taught the drying of a material, e.g. bread,using a vacuum chamber and while they appreciated the necessity ofbreaking the vacuum, there was no teaching of means positively.interrelating the breaking of the vacuum with the opening of the doors.Such means is a valuable safety factor for a home-use dryer as distinctfrom an industrial dryer.

Consequently, an object of [a broad aspect of] this invention is theprovision of a clothes dryer which dries clothes by vacuum without theuse of heat and including means positively interrelating the breaking ofthe vacuum with the opening of the access door.

STATEMENT OF THE INVENTION

By one broad aspect of this invention, then, a no-heat clothes dryer isprovided comprising: (a) a drying chamber having an access opening; (b)an access door to the drying chamber, the door being adapted to closethe access opening in an hermetically sealed manner; (c) means, adaptedto be actuated only when the door is closed, to subject the interior ofthe drying chamber to a vaccum; and (d) means positively interrelatingthe breaking of the vacuum with the opening of the access door, themeans comprising a door handle including a lever which is pivotallymounted to move between a closed position, where it locks the door in aclosed position, and an open position, where it simultaneously opensvents to the interior of the drying chamber, thereby to break thevacuum, and unlocks the door to enable opening thereof; the door handlecomprising (i) a main framework; (ii) an anchor plate at one cornerthereof; (iii) a release lever pivotally secured to the anchor plate;(iv) a plunger extending through the door, and connected to the free endof the release lever normally resiliently urged to come into lockingengagement with a lock on the door frame; and (v) means associated withthe movement of the plunger out of locking engagement with the lock toopen vent means in the door.

OTHER FEATURES OF THE INVENTION

By a feature thereof, the perimeter of the access opening is providedwith one-half of a magnetic gasket, and the perimeter of the door isprovided with a cooperating one-half of a magnetic gasket.

By yet another feature, the clothes dryer includes hooks within thedrying chamber for the hanging of clothes to be dried.

GENERAL DESCRIPTION

Thus, by the present invention in one of its embodiments, a "no-heat"clothes dryer is provided, the drying being achieved by a decrease inpressure. To achieve this according to one embodiment of this invention,an enclosed space is provided with a vacuum pump to facilitate thecreation of a partial vacuum in the interior. With the vacuum unit, thepressure of the cabinet will be reduced substantially after the clothesare put in. Although this will use a minute fraction of the energyrequired for the heating and air blowing of the conventional type, itwill efficiently dry the clothes without tumbling, which also reduces ornullifies the energy and time required for pressing.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In the accompanying drawing,

FIG. 1 is a vertical cross-sectional upright view of the clothes dryerof an aspect of this invention; and

FIG. 2 is a vertical cross-sectional view of the door and lock mechanismof the clothes dryer of an aspect of this invention.

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Description of FIG. 1

As seen in FIG. 1, the clothes dryer 10 is a generally rectangularparallelepiped box 10a including top 11, bottom 12, back 13 and anaccess opening 14. Secured to the top 11 is a plurality of hooks 15 bywhich clothes to be dried may be hung up on hangers. Extending aroundthe perimeter of the access opening 14 is one-half of a magnetic gasket16.

A door 17 is provided which is hinged to the access opening 14 in theusual manner (not shown). Extending around the perimeter of the door 17is the mating half of a magnetic gasket 18, in order that the door 17when closed, closes the clothes dryer 10 in an hermetic manner.

The exhaust 19 is connected to a source of vacuum. As shown in FIG. 1,the source of vacuum is provided by a vacuum pump 20 disposed within thebox 10a.

DESCRIPTION OF FIG. 2

As shown in FIG. 2, a door handle 21 is provided which positivelyinterrelates the breaking of the vacuum with the opening of the accessdoor 17. The handle 21 includes a framework 22 secured to the outsideface 23 of the door 17. An anchor plate 24 is provided at the upper lefthand corner of the handle frame, to which is pivotally mounted a releaselever 25 by a pin 26. The lower end of the release lever is providedwith a guide leg 27 and a locking plunger 28 extending through anaperture 29 in the door 17 to permit locking engagement with a lock (notshown) on the frame of access opening 14. Secured within the handleframe is a closure plate 30 which normally closes vent holes 31 but,when the plunger 28 is withdrawn from aperture 29, is drawn away fromvent holes 31. Plunger 28 is urged to locking engagement by compressionspring 32. The withdrawing movement of the plunger is stopped by stopper33.

OPERATION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

In use, the clothes to be dried are placed in the drying chamber 10a. Ifthe wet clothes are of a nature to be hung on a hanger, they are so hungand then the hanger is hung on the hooks 15. The access door is closedand, when so closed, conventional means (not shown) then permit thevacuum pump 20 to be actuated to place the drying chamber 10a undervacuum.

After a predetermined period of time, the clothes are dried. The vacuumpump is turned off. The handle is grasped by the release lever. Movementof the release lever pulls the plunger out of locking engagement, opensvent holes 31 to break the vacuum and enables the door 17 to be opened.

SUMMARY

From the foregoing description, one skilled in the art can easilyascertain the essential characteristics of this invention, and withoutdeparting from the spirit and scope thereof, can make various changesand modifications of the invention to adapt it to various usages andconditions. Consequently, such changes and modifications are properly,equitably, and "intended" to be, within the full range of equivalence ofthe following claims.

I claim:
 1. A "no-heat" clothes dryer comprising:(a) a drying chamberhaving an access opening; (b) an access door to said drying chamber,said door being adapted to close said access opening in an hermeticallysealed chamber; (c) means, adapted to be actuated only when said door isclosed, to subject the interior of said drying chamber to a vacuum; and(d) means positively interrelating the breaking of the vacuum with theopening of said access door, said means comprising a door handleincluding a lever which is pivotally mounted to move between a closedposition where it locks the door in a closed position and an openposition where it simultaneously opens vents to the interior of thedrying chamber thereby to break said vacuum, and unlocks the door toenable opening thereof; said door handle comprising:(i) a mainframework; (ii) an anchor plate at one corner thereof; (iii) a releaselever pivotally secured to said anchor plate; (iv) a plunger extendingthrough said door, and connected to the free end of said release levernormally resiliently urged to come into locking engagement with a lockon said door frame; and (v) means associated with the movement of saidplunger out of locking engagement with said lock to open vent means insaid door.
 2. The clothes dryer of claim 1 wherein the perimeter of saidaccess opening is provided with one-half of a magnetic gasket, andwherein the perimeter of the door is provided with a cooperatingone-half of a magnetic gasket.
 3. The clothes dryer of claim 1 includinghooks within the drying chamber for the hanging of clothes to be dried.